WIST Quotations

Adams, John -- Letter (1820-07-08) to Simon Miller

Dave — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 21:10:41 +0000

My opinions indeed on Religious Subjects ought not to be of any consequence to any but myself.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1820-07-08) to Simon Miller
(Source)

Shakespeare, William -- Much Ado About Nothing, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 29ff (5.1.29-33) (1598)

Dave — Mon, 27 May 2024 14:19:51 +0000

LEONATO: No, no, t’is all men’s office to speak patience
To those that wring under the load of sorrow;
But no man’s virtue nor sufficiency,
To be so moral, when he shall endure
The like himself.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Much Ado About Nothing, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 29ff (5.1.29-33) (1598)
(Source)

Shakespeare, William -- King Lear, Act 5, sc. 3, l. 204ff (5.3.204-205) (1606)

Dave — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 19:47:32 +0000

EDGAR: The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
King Lear, Act 5, sc. 3, l. 204ff (5.3.204-205) (1606)
(Source)

Grafton, Sue -- “I” is for Innocent (1992)

Dave — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 13:56:07 +0000

Emotion doesn’t travel in a straight line. Like water, our feelings trickle down through cracks and crevices, seeking out the little pockets of neediness and neglect, the hairline fractures in our character usually hidden from public view.

Sue Grafton (1940-2017) American novelist, screenwriter
“I” is for Innocent (1992)

Democritus -- Frag. 69 (Diels) [tr. @sententiq (2018), fr. 68]

Dave — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 18:52:07 +0000

Truth and goodness are the same for all people. But pleasure varies from one to another.

Ἀνθρώποις πᾶσι τωὐτὸν ἀγαθὸν καὶ ἀληθές· ἡδὺ δὲ ἄλλωι ἄλλο.

Democritus (c. 460 BC - c. 370 BC) Greek philosopher
Frag. 69 (Diels) [tr. @sententiq (2018), fr. 68]
(Source)

Diels citation "69. (6 N.) DEMOKRATES. 34.". Freeman notes this as one of the Gnômae, from a collection called "Maxims of Democratês," but because Stobaeus quotes many of these as "Maxims of Democritus," they are generally attributed to the latter. Alternate translations:

"For all men, good and true are the same; but pleasant differs for different men." [tr. Freeman (1948)]
"The same thing is good and true for all men. But what is pleasant differs from one to another." [Warren (2008)]
"Goodness and truth are the same for all men: but pleasure differs from man to man." [Source]

Hume, David -- “Of the Standard of Taste” (1739)

Dave — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 19:10:54 +0000

Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty. One person may even perceive deformity, where another is sensible of beauty; and every individual ought to acquiesce in his own sentiment, without pretending to regulate those of others.

David Hume (1711-1776) Scottish philosopher, economist, historian, empiricist
“Of the Standard of Taste” (1739)
(Source)

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Fight Club ch. 13 (1996)

Dave — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 15:17:52 +0000

There are a lot of things we don’t want to know about the people we love.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Fight Club ch. 13 (1996)
(Source)

Richter, Jean-Paul -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 15:36:41 +0000

The grandest of heroic deeds are those which are performed within four walls and in domestic privacy.

Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825) German writer, art historian, philosopher, littérateur [Johann Paul Friedrich Richter; pseud. Jean Paul]
(Attributed)

In Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

McEwan, Ian -- Saturday (2005)

Dave — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 21:47:23 +0000

On a recent Sunday evening, Theo came up with an aphorism: the bigger you think, the crappier it looks. Asked to explain he said, “When we go on about the big things, the political situation, global warming, world poverty, it all looks really terrible, with nothing getting better, nothing to look forward to. But when I think small, closer in — you know, a girl I’ve just met, or this song we’re going to do with Chas, or snowboarding next month, then it looks great. So this is going to be my motto — think small.”

Ian McEwan (b. 1948) English novelist and screenwriter
Saturday (2005)

Eisner, Elliot -- The Arts and the Creation of Mind, ch. 8 (2002)

Dave — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 16:00:54 +0000

One lesson the arts teach is that there can be more than one answer to a question and more than one solution to a problem; variability of outcome is okay. […] The arts teach children that their personal signature is important and that answers to questions and solutions to problems need not be identical. There is, in the arts, more than one interpretation to a musical score, more than one way to describe a painting or a sculpture, more than one appropriate form for a dance performance, more than one meaning for a poetic rendering of a person or a situation. In the arts diversity and variability are made central. That is one lesson that education can learn from the arts.

Elliot Eisner (1933-2014) Academic, researcher, professor of art and education
The Arts and the Creation of Mind, ch. 8 (2002)
(Source)

Variant: "The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution; questions can have more than one answer. If they do anything, the arts embrace diversity of outcome."

James, William -- The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lectures 14-15 “The Value of Saintliness” (1902)

Dave — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 12:44:15 +0000

The religious experience which we are studying is that which lives itself out within the private breast. First-hand individual experience of this kind has always appeared as a heretical sort of innovation to those who witnessed its birth. Naked comes it into the world and lonely; and it has always, for a time at least, driven him who had it into the wilderness …

William James (1842-1910) American psychologist and philosopher
The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lectures 14-15 “The Value of Saintliness” (1902)
(Source)

Jefferson, Thomas -- Letter (1814-09-26) to Miles King

Dave — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 12:41:14 +0000

I must ever believe that religion substantially good which produces an honest life, and we have been authorised by one, whom you and I equally respect, to judge of the tree by it’s fruit. Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to our god alone. I enquire after no man’s, and trouble none with mine: nor is it given to us in this life to know whether your’s or mine, our friend’s or our foe’s are exactly the right.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1814-09-26) to Miles King
(Source)

King, Martin Luther -- Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

Dave — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 11:44:38 +0000

Truth is found neither in traditional capitalism nor in classical communism. Each represents a partial truth. Capitalism fails to see the truth in collectivism. Communism fails to see the truth in individualism. Capitalism fails to realize that life is social. Communism fails to realize that life is personal.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)
(Source)

Selden, John -- Table Talk, § 84.1 “Marriage” (1689)

Dave — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:45:02 +0000

Of all actions of a man’s life, his marriage does least concern other people, yet of all actions of our life ‘tis most meddled with by other people.

John Selden (1584-1654) English jurist, legal scholar, antiquarian, polymath
Table Talk, § 84.1 “Marriage” (1689)
(Source)

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth -- “Holidays” (1876)

Dave — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:18:56 +0000

The holiest of holidays are those
Kept by ourselves in silence and apart;
The secret anniversaries of the heart,
When the full river of feeling overflows.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) American poet
“Holidays” (1876)
(Source)

Jefferson, Thomas -- Letter (1816-08-06) to Margaret Bayard Smith

Dave — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:41:11 +0000

I have ever thought religion a concern purely between our god and our consciences, for which we were accountable to him, and not to the priests. I never told my own religion, nor scrutinised that of another. I never attempted to make a convert, nor wished to change another’s creed. I have ever judged of the religion of others by their lives: and by this test, my dear Madam, I have been satisfied yours must be an excellent one, to have produced a life of such exemplary virtue and correctness. For it is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be read. By the same test the world must judge me.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1816-08-06) to Margaret Bayard Smith
(Source)

Jefferson, Thomas -- Letter (1813-05-31) to Richard Rush

Dave — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 11:55:05 +0000

Religion, a subject on which I have ever been most scrupulously reserved. I have considered it as a matter between every man and his maker, in which no other, & far less the public, had a right to intermeddle.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1813-05-31) to Richard Rush
(Source)

Shakespeare, William -- Much Ado About Nothing, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 37ff (5.1.37-38) (1598)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

LEONATO: For there was never a philosopher
That could endure the toothache patiently.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Much Ado About Nothing, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 37ff (5.1.37-38) (1598)
(Source)

La Rochefoucauld, Francois -- Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶78 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 18:00:00 +0000

In most men love of justice is only fear of suffering injustice.

[L’amour de la justice n’est en la plupart des hommes que la crainte de souffrir l’injustice.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶78 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
(Source)

This is thought to be a summary of the two maxims given at the bottom. When first recorded by La Rochefoucauld, it also lacked the qualifier "in most men [en la plupart des hommes]."

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

In the greatest part of men, [the Love of Justice] is only a fear of suffering injustice.
[tr. Davies (1669), ¶39]

What the Generality of People call the Love of Justice, is only the Fear of suffering by Injustice.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶79]

The love of justice in most men, is the fear of suffering by injustice.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶264]

The love of Justice, in most men, is the fear of suffering by injustice.
[ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶75]

The love of justice often means no more than the fear of suffering by injustice.
[ed. Carvill (1835), ¶452]

Love of justice in the generality of men is only the fear of suffering from injustice.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶84]

The love of justice is simply in the majority of men the fear of suffering injustice.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶78]

In most men love of justice is but the fear of suffering injustice.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶78]

Love of justice is in most cases merely fear of suffering injustice.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶78]

For most men the love of justice is only the fear of suffering injustice.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶78]

Love of justice, in most men, is only a fear of encountering injustice.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶78]

Love of justice in most men is merely the fear of suffering injustice.
[tr. Whichello (2016), ¶78]

La Rochefoucauld seems to have distilled the following two maxims down into what became ¶78 in later editions:

¶578 (¶78 in 1665 ed.):

Justice is no more than a lively fear that our belongings will be taken away from us. This is at the root of men's consideration and respect for all the interests of others, and their scrupulous care never to do them wrong. This fear keeps a man within the bounds marked out for him by his birth or fortune, and without it he would constantly be encroaching on the rights of others.
[tr. Tancock (1959)]

[La justice n’est qu’une vive appréhension qu’on ne nous ôte ce qui nous appartient ; de là vient cette considération et ce respect pour tous les intérêts du prochain, et cette scrupuleuse application à ne lui faire aucun préjudice. Cette crainte retient l’homme dans les bornes des biens que la naissance ou la fortune lui ont donnés ; et sans cette crainte, il feroit des courses continuelles sur les autres.]
(Source)

¶580 (¶90 in 1665 ed.):

People hate injustice not through distaste for it but because of the harm it does them.
[tr. Tancock (1959)]

[On blâme l’injustice, non pas par l’aversion que l’on a pour elle, mais pour le préjudice que l’on en reçoit.]
(Source)

Publilius Syrus -- Sententiae [Moral Sayings]

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Never thrust your sickle into another’s corn.

Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings]